City Commission - Regular Meeting

The Dayton City Commission meeting will now come to order. Would you all please rise for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. This morning the invocation will be given by Commissioner Beckham.

Dear Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to serve our city. Lord, we ask that you lead and guide us as we lead our community. In your name we pray.

Amen. Both religions testify of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Ms. McClendon, may we please have a roll call this morning?

Mayor Turner-Sloss? Aye. Commissioners Joseph? Aye. Shaw? Aye. Bearchild?

Aye.

Beckham?

Aye.

May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the May 20th, 2026 meeting?

So moved, Your Honor. Second the motion, Your Honor.

It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the May 20, 2026 meeting. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no. Any abstentions? Ms. McClendon, are there any petitions or communications this morning?

There are none, Your Honor.

All right. This morning we have a presentation about the Human Rights Initiative, and I would like to call to the podium Ms. Tara Campbell, Executive President of the Dayton United for Human Rights.

Good morning, Mayor, Commissioners, Deputy, I think that's Deputy City Manager, I'm not sure, Ms. Valletta, Chief of Staff. Again, my name is Tara Campbell with Dayton United for Human Rights, and we are coming here to you today to present Community Voices Dayton Region Human Rights Report. So Day United for Human Rights, which we want to be pronounced as the doers, we're a diverse grassroots organization, actually 5013C that's been a 5013C for two years. Our mission is really to ensure the accountability for the protection of human rights through coalition building by listening to, educating, and involving members of the community. and public officials. And one would say, what is a human rights city? It's really where the government and the residents work together to really uplift the human rights principles and as a foundation for laws, ordinances, policies, and for budgeting and civic life. And so really having that participatory accountability and well-being for all people. You want to say, where has Dayton United for Human Rights really started? And so the birth of this movement started in November of 2021. Mary E. Tyler, Peter Beckendorf, Erica Field, Shelley English really said, why not Dayton? And so they really started to get community input around 2022. And then we brought the resolution framework to the city commission in 2023 for us to really talk about how government and grassroots can really do something together to really make Dayton the first human rights city in Ohio. In December of 2023, it was on the docket and it was unanimously passed in December to commit for Dayton to become a human rights city. And since then, we as Dayton United for Human Rights started to really look at really understanding how do we being intentional in uplifting the voices of the community. And so we start hosting community collaboratives. Community collaboratives all over the city. We hosted seven. And so one would say, what is the human right framework? It really has that open democracy, transparency, democratic, universal, non-discriminatory, accountability, and invisible rights. And so we use the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as our guiding principles. 30 articles that really emphasizes civil, political, social, and economic, and cultural rights. And this was drafted really and proclaimed in 1948 by the United Nations. We have worked with the U.S. Human Rights City Alliance. We attended an actual leadership conference in May of 23, just to try to get an understanding of what other cities are doing. And so from there, we really said it is important that we uplift the community voices throughout this process, because there was not a process that was there for community to be involved in this process. And so we hosted seven community collaboratives. All in 2024, Central State University Dayton campus was the actual hub for those. And after that, we moved forward to the Dayton Metro Libraries. And so what do you say? What does Dayton really need to do to become a human rights city? That was the key question for many people in that room. And not only that, what was the recommendations we could offer to the city, community, and the county? One of the key things, one of the calls in this whole process was transparency in government. Equality and equity were the really prevailing themes throughout this whole process. So what we came up with was the three C's. In order for Dayton to become a true human rights city, we knew that it would take the city, the community, and the county to be a part of this process. So throughout this process, we met with 192 people and really identified those challenges and really talked to what it looks like to have those recommendations to really become a true human rights city, centering those historical voices, those marginalized communities, and the laws that affect them. And so you're talking about grassroots organizations such as Reach Indigenous Advocacy, Greater Dayton Peace Coalition, Black Lives Matter, Co-op Dayton, Dayton Tenant Union, Montgomery County Jail Coalition, of course, Dayton United Freedom Rights Coalition, and the University of Dayton participated and facilitated these discussions around these 30 articles. But that wasn't it. We made sure that we had those personal testimonies where people actually provided those lived experiences. And we summarized it. These are the summary of the eight things that people said as far as recommendations and actions. Equality and equity, healthcare access, environment, safety and privacy, fair and just economy, legal issues, transparency and governing, transparent and democratic governing, and of course, housing and poverty. What was the key takeaways? The community identified there were really urgent barriers to dignity, equity, and well-being. Higher awareness of enduring legalities of red linings, segregation, and equality. Lack of access to healthcare, food, and affordable housing. Environmental justice concern, grief spaces, population, pollution. Increase accessibility for those with disabilities dedicated to safe spaces for youth. Lack of accountability for police. Trauma-informed crisis response. Stronger privacy protections. Disinvestment for war industry. Increase investments for local businesses. Living wage for all workers. End prison labor. and the criminalization of poverty and homelessness. And of course, government reform to increase transparency, accountability, and public participation. While we look at the next steps for DUHR, we will continue to host the community collaboratives to ensure that Dayton residents remain actively involved in this process for Dayton to become the first human rights city in Ohio. The partners, we're looking to partner with the city of Dayton and Montgomery County to develop action items orientated to a road map that transfers community recommendations into equitable policies, investments, and action. We look to establish a human rights scorecard to publicly measure the accountability and implementation of the recommendations identified in this report. And we want to have a civic hub, a human rights civic hub that serves as a physical and digital space for education, organizing and leadership development, positive policy collaboration, and shared learning rooted in human dignity and democratic participation. And we will continue to release the Community Voices Dayton Region Human Rights Report every two years and document those challenges and change. And lastly, we are asking and requesting that the City of Dayton add a line item to the budget for a Human Rights Action Fund to ensure financial support for the recommendations are outlined in this process. And we say, how do we move forward? It will eventually take intentional comprehension action to address the issues and barriers and challenges identified by the community for Dayton to become a true human rights city. It requires continued collaboration, education, research, civic engagement, and partnerships with the community at the center. I'm going to say that again, community at the center, city and county leadership. By working together to address the community identified priorities and implement sustainable people-centered solutions, people-centered solutions, Dayton can build a strong foundation towards becoming a true human rights city where human rights are respected, protected, fulfilled for all people. I just want to take this time to say I appreciate Mayor Turner-Sloss and Matt Joseph to really steer heading this process. Mayor Turner-Sloss has been in this movement from the beginning, and I'm looking for all of you all to really come and engage in this process and really understanding what it really takes from a volunteer standpoint to really move this movement along and become a true human rights city.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Campbell. I'll turn it over to my colleagues. I'm sure they have comments and praises to give. Commissioners, Commissioner Beckham.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to thank Ms. Campbell and the entire group. It seems like a number of participants are here today for all their hard work to bring this forward to us. I know this has been a long process. I want to commend the Mayor and Commissioner Joseph for leading it. I also recognize there was a number of partners involved as well, partner organizations. And kudos to everyone that has participated and put in the long hours to get us to this point. And looking forward to just working and supporting the next steps. I will unfortunately have to miss today's work session due to another commitment and obligation. But I look forward to staying engaged, Ms. Campbell. So thank you for your presentation today.

Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Fairchild.

Yeah, Ms. Campbell, thank you for the presentation. More importantly, thank you for the hard work as well as all of the organizations and citizens who have worked with you. And, you know, as you were talking, I was reminded that, you know, not only are these rooted in the UN, human rights, but they're really rooted in American ideals. I mean, these go back to the idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It goes back to the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and really digging in and making those real in our day and age. for our community so thank you for doing that hard work and it's also an example of self government governance you know citizens identifying the needs in their community how we become a more perfect Union and how to move us forward I also appreciate your perseverance because this has been a long long journey and there's been delays there we haven't completely fulfilled we haven't i don't know do we need um we haven't completely fulfilled our commitment to you we have that survey completed in a year we haven't met that deadline i'm very excited that we will have the survey completed uh or we'll have the work session and we'll get the report here in a little bit and it'll give us the opportunity uh to move forward and to really make this uh something real and concrete. And I love, I didn't realize that Dayton United for Human Rights is Doer. So thank you for educating me on Doer. So thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Shaw.

Well, thank you, Ms. Campbell, for being here and all this hard work. And thanks to everyone else in the audience that has been participating in this. I'm very excited about this and want to engage in this human rights conversation. I look forward to reviewing the report. I also want to thank the mayor and my colleague, Commissioner Joseph, for their work. I know that this is something that's been near and dear to them for a long time. And I'm just looking forward to what comes out of this and engaging. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Shaw. Commissioner Joseph.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Campbell, for your work on this. Thank you, everyone who's here. The application of the Universal Declaration principles is nothing new, really. And how we're doing it here is. It's something that hasn't been done as far as I know in Ohio, maybe even further in the Midwest. Using it as a lens for our actions, our organization. So it sort of goes back to my UD roots in human rights. It's nice to have UD be a partner with this. And I've been proud to work with my colleagues to put this together. Looking forward to the work session. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Joseph. I would like to echo my colleagues' comments. I mean, they hit the nail on the head in terms of the foundation of our Constitution, of this country, and the principles and the mission of this organization as a whole. So kudos to you. And if you all would, if you're able, please, if you're involved with DOER, please stand up. We need to be recognized as well. Thank you very much. And I have to, and please forgive me if I miss your name, but I really want to uplift the work of Dr. Natalie Hudson, Dr. Joel Puse, Mr. Tony, Ms. Mary E. Tyler, the whole coalition, of course, you, Ms. Campbell. Again, this started back in, I believe it was 22, 23 in Atlanta, Georgia, when this idea and this concept, actually before then. 21. 21, exactly. Back in 21, Amaha Selassie, there was conversations that we had, in fact, at the University of Dayton Human Rights Center, and this roundtable of conversation, and then fast forward, the conference we all attended in Atlanta, and then nothing but progress from that point on. So kudos to you, the entire coalition. I just look forward to the work session this morning. Look forward to continuing and supporting. And again, I would like to uplift Commissioner Shaw's point. I know this is something very near and dear to Commissioner Joseph, being that his OUD days. And so again, his work with Dr. Hudson, as well as with Congressman, Ambassador, excuse me, Tony Hall. So again, thank you very much and look forward to the review. Thank you. We also have to acknowledge our Recreation and Youth Services Department, as well as our Human Relations Council, Mr. Lamont Hall, Mr. Marcellus, and their work and their involvement in this initiative. So thank you.

If I can say, I definitely appreciate Lamont because he has worked through this process with us as well, and thank you. Thank you, thank you.

All right, next and Most exciting presentation this morning. We will have our monthly demolition update presentation. I would like to call to the podium Mr. Steve Gondel, Director of Planning and Neighborhood Development.

Good morning, Mayor, Commissioners, Deputy City Manager, Ms. McClendon.

Good morning.

Steve Gondel, Director for the Department of Planning, Neighbors and Development, with your April 2026 State and Recovery Plan Demolition Update. So in April, we saw 15 structures demolished. All 15 of those were under the ARPA contract. To date, that brings us to 69 total demolitions for the year, 60 of those through ARPA funding, nine through Ohio Department of Development funding. Where we're looking at on progress, we have 21% of the planned 2026 demolitions completed, and we're about 33% of the way through the year. So obviously, I'm working with my team to make sure that we kind of stay on track. Obviously, we're a little bit behind, but I'm already looking at the main numbers, and I think we're going to catch up to that. But still making pretty good progress here. Our piles that we had at the end of March totaled 24. We removed none in the month of April, but we also added none in the month of April. So we completed there with again just the 24. As I mentioned previously, our progress on drafting a new pile contract has moved along. 50 properties have been identified, and I can tell you generally where those, the bulk of those will be in the Westwood and Southern Dayton View area, but also the neighborhood straddling the main street, the northern main street corridor, kind of equally divided among those communities, as well as our friends in Twin Towers and Burkhart is where not all, but the bulk of those 50 pile removals will occur.

Great.

Again, just my mental reminder, no emergency demolitions to map for the month of April. But looking at where our 15 demolitions occurred in April, you'll see here that the following neighborhoods and the count per neighborhood. Dayton View, one. Fairview, Neighborhood 1, Hillcrest 1, McFarland 3, Miami Chapel 1, Old North Dayton 1, Santa Clara 3, and Southern Dayton View 4. So that comprises the 15, as well as you see on the map here where those demolitions, the removals occurred. OUR YEAR TO DATE, I'M NOT GOING TO READ THROUGH EVERYTHING, BUT I WILL TELL YOU, 17 UNIQUE NEIGHBORHOODS EXPERIENCED THE REMOVAL OF A STRUCTURE OR PILE. SO I'VE SHARED THAT BEFORE, BUT JUST TO ADD, SO THE FOLLOWING NEIGHBORHOODS HAD THEIR FIRST demolition removals this year, Dayton View, Fairview, Hillcrest, and Old North Dayton. And then kind of leading that is Santa Clara with 14 demolitions to date. And Southern Dayton View is now at 27 to date for the year 2026. And I've shared the previous neighborhoods in the past, but again, kind of both focusing, concentrating removal in targeted areas, but also spreading that across 17 neighborhoods where there's an opportunity. And so I know that that matters for people because that one problem house on your block may be the only one in your block or neighborhood. And so we are getting this work throughout the city while still focusing on some of our hardest hit areas like Southern Dateview and Santa Clara. Our structural nuisance. In the month of April, we had nine houses that were added to the structural nuisance list. Six of those were because of blight. Three of those were because of fire-related damage. So we are now, in 2026, up to 51 structures, 47 houses or buildings, and four garages comprise that 51 number. Our pipeline. We had 62 title reports completed. That's the first step in removing a property. That brings us to 189 for the year. We did not have any asbestos surveys or mediations completed in April, but we still have a fairly big pipeline in there from previous work. I will note that In April, we had 26 post-debatement inspections, which means after the survey, the remediation's done, it's just that check. So what that tells us is that we have 26 properties ready to go. So 26 were done in the month of April. And our before and afters. So I'm bringing you a little bit of a different look at our before and afters because one of the things I noticed... Some months we have the 20s, maybe low 30s. With the 15 demolitions, one of the things I noticed from the staff's work was where these were located. And so as I mentioned, it may just be one property on that block, but sometimes these have really significant impacts on the community. So our first address here is 24 Barnett. And if you can see that pin there, this is a single property across the street from the Dakota Center. And as we look at, again, trying to look at Blade around, you know, playgrounds and schools and centers where, you know, kids are, this really stood out to me because it would address a problem in a very active center for young kids. And so really thrilled to see that taken care of and having that kind of additional positive impact on the Dakota Center. Next, 634 Ferguson. Mayor, I think a few meetings ago you talked about kind of keeping that focus in that Ferguson area. This was another. You see the pin there close to Dayton Leadership Academy. One thing you'll notice on the before photo on the left, there's actually... Behind all that brush, there's two houses there. One house came down under a previous contract. The second one came down. So now from kind of the alley or the pin going up, we've cleared out those two homes and now opening up that remaining house, which is occupied. And so continuing that work in that area to kind of remove all that blight, especially around the school there. And so really pleased with just furthering that activity there. 237 Audubon, as the urban planner in me, I just liked it because you don't see a lot of these. It's really a unique sub-community in a neighborhood. Those homes, you'll see, kind of all face an interior sidewalk. That's pretty rare. And that's in the lower Dayton View neighborhood there. And so it's kind of a unique, you don't see a lot of these, but that one blighted structure really had a negative impact on all those remaining properties. And given the fact that they're close proximity and kind of having that shared English courtyard kind of front yard area. Really thrilled to get that out of the way so that that community can continue to thrive in there and so I pointed that out just because again we don't have a lot of residential alignments like this in the city and so that's a really unique thing. Sometimes you kind of got to get out of your car and go look at it but really cool that all these front onto the yards in the front sidewalk. So 237 Audubon has been removed. And then rounding out, again, the work up in Santa Clara, 3638 West Hudson, and then coming back down 555 South Broadway. This one is just north of Berkham Park, but it was the last house in that area. And you can see the difference of how that opens up that area for potential, you know, whatever. But that was the last remaining structure in that kind of block area on Broadway. And so removing that kind of opens up future potential in that area for other uses. So bringing us to where are we at in 2026, 60 of our 120 ARPA-funded demos have been completed, nine of our 70-75 planned Ohio Department of Development-funded demos, and then again, based off of the contracts recently approved, we'll be beginning our Community Development Block Grant demolitions in the Westwood and Burkhart neighborhoods coming up here in the near future, and then we'll see some general-funded demos coming probably in the latter half of 2026. As noted, we checked in with our ARPA project team. 99% of our funds are expense or encumbered, so we've done a really great job managing those funds. We have 50 months of work completed, eight months remaining to wrap up just the ARPA work. The other stuff is ongoing. So with that, I will cease my remarks and take any questions you all might have.

Thank you, sir. I'll turn it over to my colleagues. Thank you very much. Commissioner Beckham.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Gondel, for the presentation. As usual, no questions this morning, but just eager to continue to see these demolitions happen across the city. Thank you for the more and more detailed information. Absolutely. Just looking forward to the continued work. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Fairchild.

Thank you, Mr. Gondel, for the presentation. Thank you for the work. A couple of questions. I appreciate you putting the pins out there, and particularly your comment around the one being close to the Dakota Center and then one next to the Leadership Academy. I assume that we have all the nuisances mapped out, and you can identify those that are close to schools, parks, and other amenities. Does that impact their priorities and how close are we to removing blighted properties away from all the schools and parks?

That's a great question that I could probably follow up with the team and look at mapping that and get it back to the city manager's office. It does go when it can. We take that into consideration obviously and so it's a factor also where we're working. Sometimes just getting it on the radar to know that we have a concentration up here. Let's work on that.

And where are we with the housing conditions survey? It should be completed by now. How soon are we to getting a report?

So I think we're working with Ms. Jackson on a work session. It's either in late June or early July that we have that scheduled to present to you all those findings. answer some of those, you know, the outcome of that work as well as some broader questions you've had and how it kind of ties into what I think Commissioner Joseph said. It was like, what does 2027 look like, you know, now that ARPA funding wraps down? So it's going to be a twofer, but I think we're, I'll follow up with Ms. Jackson about what we have scheduled when we have that work session scheduled.

Okay.

I appreciate the information about how many have been added to the nuisance list. I think two months ago I asked, you know, what is the total number of the nuisance list? And I'm curious, as we see ones that are getting added, we see numbers being demolished. I'm just kind of curious over a multi-year trend, how are we doing in managing that nuisance list?

So that's one aspect that we talked about with the City Manager's Office of putting into that work session so we can kind of dive into that list to look at it wholly as it relates to the condition survey and the scale of our issue and then look at, as you kind of note, or as I note, breaking them out as how many are blighted, how many are fire damaged, and then of the fire damage, how many of those had insurance. So it's a little bit of a deeper dive that we asked to kind of put into that work session. So we're going to explore that during then.

OK. And then we briefly had some conversation about some of the mitigation strategies that are used. As part of that work session, can we get kind of a deeper explanation of the mitigation? Because, I mean, at the end of the day, We want to stop having blight at home, so we can reduce the amount of money we have to spend to demolish blight at home. So it seems like having a good understanding of the mitigation and whether it's successful or not. I mean, that's the other thing, like looking at that trend line of how the nuisance list is either increasing, decreasing, would be really helpful to know whether our mitigation strategies are working well.

I think that's a logical part of that, because we've got to figure out a plan for 27 and beyond as to What tools do we have now? Demolition, the Dayton Home Repair Network, all of those things. So kind of having to look at that holistically to see how we kind of put a stop to the further decline in properties and understanding both the ownership structures and some of the other things that kind of come with the blighted properties. All right. Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you, sir. Commissioner Shaw?

Well, thank you, Sigandal, for being here and doing this presentation again. It's really important that we keep doing this and pushing that information out there. But I agree with you. It's really important to do the strategic demolition, having the most impact in dense areas that are salvageable, really. And then it speaks to the impact, and that's what I really wanted to bring across. But that's really all I have. I want to thank you for this and continue.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Shaw. Commissioner Joseph.

Thank you, Mayor. Actually, I appreciate the focus that's been on what's going to happen in 27, putting that plan together. But actually, I'm looking at the structures added to the nuisance list last year and so far this year, and I'm wondering if we are reaching some sort of stability, like we can expect I mean, there are always going to be structures added, and the question for us is how we deal with them, right? So do you think that, I mean, just from your educated opinion, do you think that's probably, we're going to be a little over 100 structures added each year? I mean, is that, I mean, I see it looks like we're sort of hitting the same place. Yeah, on a pace. 15 or so.

Yeah, it's hard to say. I'd have to probably go back and look, have the team look at the previous years on the breakdown. It could tell me how much we're blighted, how much we're fire. Because the fire, there's kind of a pacing there to see how much. And we've been working with fire continually to kind of look at how we address that. And so to see if there's any trends I could predict. I would love to keep it below. Ideally, I'd love to get it where it almost trails down. Yes, we're always going to have... an issue on blighted and fire, but to get that number, not even an average of 100, but to really get that trending downwards, that we're having intervention, as Commissioner Fairchild said, to kind of stop the further decline of properties, that we bring in resources into place to help people, help properties. And so, you know, I would, I think 100 would be manageable, but yeah, we'd love to see it trend down even further.

Great. Me too. Thank you, Mr. Garland.

Thank you. Mr. Gondo, I really appreciate the update, the monthly updates. This is something that I always look forward to. I want to commend you and the staff. I do have a couple questions. Great update. One is what happened with the previous chart where you, I believe it was a heat map, and then you also laid out the various different locations, i.e. neighborhoods in which the demolitions were taking place. You spoke to it, but in the past you had a actual chart that laid out whether it was one demolition in Dayton View, four demolitions in Westwood. Again, I believe in last month's presentation you had that chart. So it was something good to follow.

I can follow up with the commission office. So I have that in the speaking notes. Yes. So it doesn't show up in the presentation, but in the slide, the list is in there. So I can make sure Ms. Jackson gets that so you all have the breakdown of those.

Okay. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. BUT AGAIN, THE PREVIOUS BUT AGAIN, THE PREVIOUS BUT AGAIN, THE PREVIOUS PRESENTATION, YOU ACTUALLY HAD A PRESENTATION, YOU ACTUALLY HAD A PRESENTATION, YOU ACTUALLY HAD A CHART IN YOUR PRESENTATION. CHART IN YOUR PRESENTATION. CHART IN YOUR PRESENTATION. SO I WOULD JUST ENCOURAGE THAT SO I WOULD JUST ENCOURAGE THAT SO I WOULD JUST ENCOURAGE THAT YOU HAVE THAT. YOU HAVE THAT. YOU HAVE THAT. IF YOU WOULDN'T MIND ADDING IF YOU WOULDN'T MIND ADDING IF YOU WOULDN'T MIND ADDING THAT TO THE PRESENTATION. THAT TO THE PRESENTATION. THAT TO THE PRESENTATION. BECAUSE I THINK IT WOULD BE GOOD BECAUSE I THINK IT WOULD BE GOOD BECAUSE I THINK IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR THE V from this angle point, and I would imagine it's difficult for the public to view as well. So if you could add that, it would be greatly appreciated. Just a couple of follow-up questions, too, to that. Again, I see the demolition is definitely making its way in some of those more distressed, challenging areas. Could you have the staff go back? There was a recent demolition. THAT TOOK PLACE ON BROADWAY. AND WHAT I'M SEEING IS THAT ONCE THE STRUCTURE ITSELF IS REMOVED AND THE GRADING AND SEEDING STARTS TO TAKE PLACE, THERE IS SOME LEFT DEBRIS THAT IS NOT REMOVED ENTIRELY FROM THE SITE. So James H. McGee, and that goes back to the old, the bus hub on James H. McGee. There's still some debris there, bricks, concrete, whatever have you. So if you could have the staff review that. North Main Street as well. AND THEN I KNOW THERE IS STILL FAIRLY NEW, IF YOU WILL, BUT THERE HAVE BEEN A NUMBER OF CONCERNS. COMMISSIONER BECKHAM ACTUALLY RAISED IT FROM THE DAISY LAST WEEK IN REGARDS TO TASTY BIRD. IF WE CAN HAVE, AND AGAIN, I KNOW IT'S UNDER REVIEW, BUT IF WE COULD HAVE AN UPDATE AS TO WHERE WE ARE JUST SO WE CAN SHARE WITH THE PUBLIC. LIKE, IT'S GOING THROUGH THE PROCESS. THERE'S INVESTIGATION THAT NEEDS TO TAKE PLACE. RAPCO, WHOMEVER HAVE YOU, HAS TO GO IN you know, FD has to go in and do their piece. If we can have some level of an update, I think it would be greatly appreciated because we received a number of calls, inquiries, emails, all of the above.

Mayor, we do have an update that we can share with Commission today regarding the Tasty Bird demolition. Great. We have been in contact with the owner and are working with the owner and their insurance company. We've let the owner know how to understand all of their obligations regarding the cleanup and security of the property. So we have been working with the owner. We have been notified about the insurance company and we are working to get the escrow set up so that the removal of that fire can progress. So just wanted to give you that quick update but we do have a more detailed update that we can share with you and packet this Friday.

Thank you very much, Ms. Lofton. I greatly appreciate it. And I don't want to put the onus on the city, but is it an opportunity for us to potentially look at securing the site with Jersey barriers? Because I'm seeing a lot of activity where there's scrapping, a number of various different things that are taking place. So I don't know if that's part of the review as well. Thank you, Ms. Lofton. The other is, most recently, again, we had a couple of unfortunate incidents that took place, but the Blues Barbershop on Hoover Avenue, do we have an update or an idea as to where we are in that location as well?

That one I'll have to follow up with you. Yes, sir. I'll get with staff.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Blues Barbershop on Hoover?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

And I would say a staple in the Westwood neighborhood. It's been around for quite some time. And then the other... Commissioner, do you have...

No, I was just agreeing with you.

Okay, yes, sir. I believe you used to get your hair cut. I did. Yes, yes. The other question that I wanted to pose this morning is, could you just at a very high level, just explain the process. Oftentimes there's misconception that once we demolish a site or a structure on a site, that we take ownership of that parcel of that particular site. SITE ITSELF. IF YOU WOULDN'T MIND EXPLAINING AT A VERY HIGH LEVEL AS TO WHAT THAT PROCESS LOOKS LIKE AND THE ACTUAL FEES THAT ARE APPLIED OR WHATEVER HAVE YOU. AND SOMETIMES THERE IS A MIX BETWEEN THE CITY AND THE OWNER AND ALL OF THOSE VERY CUMBERSOME. YEAH.

So the law allows us in situations of structural nuisance to both facilitate the maintenance and or demolition of a structure, but we do not get ownership of it. And so we do have to follow a very strict protocol for notifying owners called providing service. And so once all of those efforts are achieved, we then have to go ahead to proceed with the demolition. We have full site control, which we then hand over to the vendor who then has possession of that site while they work. And then once that is completed, the site ownership remains with the original owner. When we can, we assess any of those costs. to the owner. They're first invoiced. They have a period of time to pay that. If they fail to pay the city for the work that was done on the site, we then send those expenses over to the county where it will then be applied to the property tax record. So the point being is that as an owner of a property, we're not coming in and taking care of the problem and then allowing you to have a fresh site that you could go sell. You will either be expected to pay us back or pay it back through the sale of that with the property taxes. So yeah, almost all all the work that we're doing here, at the end of the day, those lots still remain under the ownership of the previous owner. But we are working really hard to assess those costs so that way we can be made whole if somebody does try to sell that lot. So that is probably the bulk of our work right now is non-city owned, non-county owned sites that we're acting upon. But we don't retain ownership. Now those will probably then go into vacant land management. speaking kind of on behalf of my colleagues, they, same thing, they will then begin mowing. They assess those costs to the property as well. And so there's still, again, that ownership is retained, but any work done by the city is being invoiced to that owner and eventually to the property tax. From there, um, individuals can do. They can go to the county treasury. They can initiate a deposit or foreclosure on the site. So, you know, the public adjacent property owners can actually try to get ownership if they choose, but they would do that through the county and our friends at the county are prepared to help with that. And so, um, there is a means there, but yeah, that's a lot of this work is, is done in spite of, you know, property owners. Okay.

Thank you. I really appreciate it. Last question. Actually, two more. Very, very brief. So again, some of these various different sites that have remediation, demolition, if we could be very strategic and intentional about the removal of the overgrown vegetation. We're taking out structures, but then oftentimes we're leaving trees that are just OVERHANGING OR OVERGROWN OVERHANGING OR OVERGROWN VEGETATION, AND IT DOESN'T VEGETATION, AND IT DOESN'T VEGETATION, AND IT DOESN'T GIVE A VERY PLEASING VIEW, IF GIVE A VERY PLEASING VIEW, IF GIVE A VERY PLEASING VIEW, IF YOU WILL, AND SO WE WANT TO MAKE YOU WILL, AND SO WE WANT TO MAKE YOU WILL, AND SO WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WITH THE REMOVAL OF SURE THAT WITH THE REMOVAL OF SURE THAT WITH THE REMOVAL OF THESE SITES, OF THESE STRUCTURES THESE SITES, OF THESE STRUCTURES THESE SITES, OF THESE STRUCTURES ON THESE SITES, THAT WE'RE ON THESE SITES, THAT WE'RE ON THESE SITES, THAT Again, I would just ask that if we could have that conversation with our public works or the contractors, whomever have you, and making sure that we are addressing. And you all did that work with probably about two, three years ago with the demolition of the unfortunate fire that took place on Negley Place in Bratway. You all went in, removed a number of the overgrown trees and vegetation. So I would just encourage that work moving forward.

Yeah, and actually that does fall, that can fall under our contract. It's timely you brought that up. I was approving invoices yesterday and I noticed that they're pretty detailed, you know, whether it's just a structure. But our level of tree removal actually has kind of picked up depending on the site. And so what happens is there's a pricing point based off the diameter. So we pay extra. And so where the... The nuisance specialist will then confer with their supervisor and potentially up to the division manager myself as to how many trees do we think we need to remove based on threats to other properties. And the reason why we kind of confer on that is because it cuts into the demolition of other properties. So we really try to look at the most problematic trees and brush and all that that we can remove. And then when we do have to pay kind of like an a la carte on top of that, we really try to make an informed decision on does this actually continue to improve the lot? Does it maybe prepare the lot for future redevelopment? So we don't take down everyone, but they do try to look at this might be, if it's a disease tree, even if it might cost us $2,000 or so, they will suggest removing it because We're out there, we're working on it, and again, we want to make sure that these lots can be turned over to a future redevelopment that we took care of all the problems right at one point, instead of saying, oh, the lot's ready, now you have to go in and do all this removal. Looking at some of these invoices, I do notice that they've been pretty good about... looking at the removal of additional trees, even if it is more of an expense because of the reasons you pointed out. And so I would say on properties where there is a remaining issue, just send them my way and we'll look at working with our colleagues in vacant land management on whether further reduction of trees need to be removed.

YES, SIR, THANK YOU. I APPRECIATE YOU EXTENDING THAT OFFER. WE'LL WORK THROUGH IT, MS. JACKSON. I APPRECIATE THAT.

THANK YOU.

LAST COMMENT, AND IT'S MORE SO MAYBE TO MS. LOFTON. SO, YOUR PREDECESSOR, MR. KINSLEY, PRIOR TO HIM LEAVING THE ORGANIZATION, THERE WAS A PILOT that was deployed and it basically was an opportunity similar to the depository program, if you will, almost complementary to the lot links program where there were a number of parcels that were under the city's ownership and there was a pilot to where there was maybe like open open.gov where individuals can go and they can potentially bid for the sites that they had an interest in in owning or ownership. Do we have an update or can we have an update on that to see where we are in that process if that pilot program is in fact still running?

Yes, we'll get you an update. We were selling properties on GovDeals. Thank you. And so we had some participation, and there are lows and highs and lows in when some of those properties have been purchased and how. But we'll get you an update on the status of that.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Gondo. Please give our best to the staff and thank them as well.

Thank you.

All right, Ms. McClendon, are there any additions, deletions, or comments to the calendar this morning?

I have none, Your Honor.

All right, thank you. And Ms. Loftin, are there any additions, deletions, or comments to the calendar this morning?

Good morning, Commissioners, Mayor. I do not have any additions or deletions, but I do have a couple of items I'd like to highlight for your pleasure. The first item I'd like to talk about is item A1 on our agenda, which is a contract modification with Acela. This item basically is a renewal of our existing licensing. And Acela is the software platform that supports several of our critical functions with the Planning and Neighborhood Development Department and also in Public Works, including permitting, licensing, code enforcement, and our inspections. This renewal extends our license through 2028. and is necessary to ensure the continuity of our existing services. Without it, P&D loses the access to the tools that staff rely on daily and to serve residents and manage the development activity in our city. So we would appreciate you approving that. And just that you're aware, the $366,000 amount is over a two-year period. So the first year's license is $178,000, and the second year license is $188,000, which makes up that $366,000 total. Next, I'd like to share with you some information regarding A5, which is a master agreement with Southeast Ohio Public Energy Council. Before we move into the agreement itself, I want to make sure the Commission and the public understand what the Gem City Solar Project is and represents. We haven't visited this since January of this year. This is a 49.9 megawatt solar facility that will be built right here in Dayton, near Little Richmond Road and State Route 49, spanning up to 300 acres. When complete, it will be the largest solar project within the city's limits, and one of the largest community choice solar projects inside any American city. It will generate enough electricity each year to power roughly 14,665 homes, supplying approximately 30% of the energy used in our residential electric aggregate program. Because we're locking in a fixed price for 25 years, we're also protecting residents from volatile energy markets. And projections show that could translate to up to $42 million in savings for our residents and small businesses over the life of the agreement. This project is also a true partnership between the City of Dayton, SOPEC, AEP Energy Partners, and solar developer Zalestra. The City Commission approved the energy purchase agreement with AEP back in January of this year. Today's action, which is the master agreement with SOPEC, is what ensures that solar energy is properly integrated into the aggregation program that serves our residents. Because SOPEC administers the program and holds the supply agreement with AEP, we need this separate agreement to connect all of those pieces. So the agreement commits SOPEC to work collaboratively to incorporate the Gem City solar energy into the aggregation program. It also protects the city, it keeps costs in check for us, and it makes clear that all renewable energy certificates remain under the city's ownership and control and it establishes procedures should the city ever choose to leave SOPEC in the future. It is worth noting that due to the sensitive energy procurement and marketing related provisions the agreement is considered a trade secret and is therefore exempt from public disclosure and our law department has reviewed that and approved that as well. So this agreement is basically an essential step to keep our project on track towards our 2028 launch timeframe and to deliver our commitment to a cleaner, more stable, locally generated energy for Dayton residents. And then last but not least, I'd like to highlight item B6, which is a contract that was awarded to Outdoor Enterprise LLC. The contractor met the city's 10% MBE goal, and this 144,000 project is funded through issue six. It will remove some aging playground equipment and existing basketball courts, making way for some new improvements at Berkham Park. So we are looking forward to this full project coming to bear, but we needed to get some of the old stuff out the way so we can begin to plan for introduction of some new equipment and modular restrooms in that facility. And that's all. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lofton. Ms. McClendon, are there any citizens who are registered to speak this morning?

Your Honor, there are no citizens registered to speak on calendar items.

All right, thank you. Commissioners, are there any comments on the City Manager's recommendations? Commissioner Beckham?

Thank you, Your Honor. Just a few. On the service agreement for the Jim City Solar Project, I want to congratulate the organization, congratulate our sustainability office, and all of the partners that made this possible. 30% of our aggregation program. That's a big number. And this is a really innovative, dynamic project that, as I said in January, I think sets us apart. And I am just thrilled to see this come forward and glad to know that the ball is rolling and that this is near completion. So congratulations to all, mostly to the residents of our community that are going to save due to these energy costs. So great work. Also, Berkham Park, glad to see those updates, and congratulations to that neighborhood.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Fairchild.

Tess. All right. Thank you to the staff for getting that fixed. A question about Tasty Bird. I know it'll be difficult to remove that raw food that was spoiling on that site without moving everything, but have we been able to... address that and if not is there a way to expedite that if the owner is not going to do that if we could I mean it's a health issue for our residents so can you give us an update on that piece of the tasty bird

I can't give you an update more than what I've shared is that our teams have assembled and are talking to all the partners involved, including public health. So we are working with the owner. We're working to see where our limitations are and what our opportunities are to kind of protect that site. And to the mayor's point, we're also investigating our ability to put barriers around there. So I can give you more detail. and follow up specifically around that issue but we are in conversations with all of our partners, county, city and the owner and the insurance company.

OK, thank you. There's over a quarter million dollars in payment of vouchers, which is a pretty significant amount. Could you explain what happened on those four contracts?

Sure. So payment of vouchers are our way of correcting something that happened outside of an official encumbrance being in place, much like the payment of voucher that we had on calendar for last week. Basically, what happened here is the applicable contracts expired on December 31st, 2025, and the encumbrances tied to those contracts expired along with them. And the work, however, was performed and the expenses were incurred, and there wasn't an instrument in place to make payment. And so when that happens, we basically come back to this commission, no matter the amount, and say, even though you approved the contract, the contract closed, but work continued afterwards. Legitimate work, work that was a part of the contract, and we need an instrument to make the payment. We don't just cut checks. even outside of a closed contract. So what a payment of voucher does is simply allows for the correction of that issue. And that's what happened. Public Works simply had contract terms that limited the contractor's ability to get the work completed. and the contractors continue to do the work. So we have since stopped that work until we can get the remainder of the work under actual contracts that are current with encumbrances. But the invoices that are before you are for work that was done, was legitimate work, it was work done according to the terms of the contract, and we have an obligation to pay those vendors.

All right, thank you for that explanation. And I want to speak a minute about the reappropriation. I'm going to support it because there's an important contract with the airport in there that needs to be passed today. Though I think this commission needs to go back and re-look at that $32,000 expenditure on the Gulf simulator. And part of the reason I believe we need to re-look at that is that when we close Kitty Hawk and Madden, we made an agreement You know, one of the reasons we kept it was two reasons. One is we can't sell it because of the deed. It was a gift. It's deeded. And so there's no way to liquidate that asset to the benefit of the city. And so we kept it, but we also recognize that given the loss of Kitty Hawk and Madden, that the revenue it creates gives us the opportunity to invest back, particularly into young people. And somewhere it got decided, city manager policy, that $50,000 would be sufficient to give for that process. I think we need to revisit whether that's the accurate amount. I think maybe a percentage of revenues would be a better way, because we know the golf course has done better. And it'd be great to have a full accounting in terms of the finances of the golf course. You know, one of the things that I do know is that we've continued to invest in there, and the golf course is doing so well that we were able to fund a significant amount of debt to improve the golf course. But here was the thing that really kind of has crystallized my thinking on that. If the simulator is to encourage young people to take up golf in Dayton City residents, why would we locate it in Kettering? Why wouldn't we locate it somewhere in Dayton, which would give it better access to our young people and our citizens? And so maybe if we want to spend that money, maybe we find a location in the city. But then the second question I would ask is, if we're going to spend $32,000 on an amenity around recreation, Is this the best and highest use of that $32,000? Or are there other amenities or opportunities that we could create? And particularly since we're on the eve of really kind of kicking off our commitment to developing young people with the mayor's children's cabinet, I think pausing on spending that dollars until we know exactly some of the strategies that we want to use and the resources that are going to be required would be prudent. So that is my request of my colleagues.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Shaw.

Thank you for that. You know, for me, for the golf course, and the reason why we didn't close that, at least my position on that, was because it was making money. The other two were losing money, and this one was making money, so it made sense to me to keep that one open. Golf courses are an amenity in a city of our size and I think it's important to have that amenity available. Also with the simulator I think it's more for me also that it's a way to strengthen the opportunity at the golf course. So in other words, a simulator gives you year round, because of an opportunity to engage with golf. And my thinking on that also is that this is a way to reach out to young people and engage them in the sport as well. So I get where you're coming from though, and I think it's worth taking a look. at the spend. I don't think $32,000 is a whole lot of money in that space, but I agree with you. I think we should take a look at it and have a thoughtful conversation about that. Past that, I think my colleagues have asked and the deputy city manager has answered a lot of the questions that I had, so thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Shaw. Commissioner Joseph.

You all know I'm thrilled about the agreement with SOPEC. The chance to provide affordable power, affordable, clean, renewable power to our residents at a scale that almost no other city is doing makes me very proud. And I thank my colleagues for their support. I thank our staff for their work and all of our partners and colleagues. This is an exciting time. And I think there couldn't be any more timely thing to do for our residents than this right now today with gas prices going up, energy prices going up. we're going to be able to do great things for our residents here. So I really appreciate all support. This is awesome. And I'm also glad to see a new roof on Laura's gym. So that's all I have. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you to my colleagues for their comments and questions. I do have a couple questions. First, I would like to uplift, again, the work of SOPEC. Thank you, Commissioner Joseph, for leading that initiative alongside with our sustainability department. They're doing some great work. I believe I see Mark Charles in the audience. Is he here? Is that right? No. Okay. I may have misspoke. Excuse me. But again, uplifting the work of Ms. Maloney and the entire staff. They're doing some phenomenal work as well as, as mentioned by Ms. Lofton, the solar garden and that work that's being done there. And Just recently, there was an announcement made in the Youth Climate Initiative, and so more to come on that that will be rolling out. So a lot of great work that's being done in sustainability. I have a question in regards to... And I lost my question. All right. Come on with me. It's still early. Okay. Question in regards to... the legislation for the reappropriations. So thank you, Commissioner Fairchild, for raising the point. And this is your lane, Commissioner Shaw, so I lean on you in terms of the purpose of a simulator. And I am supporting. I think we do need to pull back the $32,000 for the golf simulator. And thank you, Mr. Parlett. I know last week you gave the history as to why that investment is being made there in that particular golf course. Noted that it was donated to the city of Dayton. I BELIEVE THAT ANSWERS YOUR QUESTION, COMMISSIONER FAIRCHILD, IN TERMS OF WHY IT'S AT THAT PARTICULAR SITE. I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S EASILY TO TRANSPORT. LIKE, IS THE SIMULATOR SOMETHING THAT YOU CAN MOVE FROM THE GDRC TO GET KIDS ACCLIMATED SO THEY CAN REALLY SEE IF THAT'S SOMETHING THEY WANT TO ENGAGE WITH? MAYBE IT'S A DAY A DAY OF PRACTICE? IS GOLF FOR YOU? AND THEN IS IT ABLE TO BE TRANSPORTED TO, AGAIN, TO THE SITE, THE FIXED SITE OF THE GOLF COURSE ITSELF? COULD WE UTILIZE IT TO HELP CREATE INTEREST?

YEAH, I DON'T KNOW. I'M NOT AN EXPERT.

OKAY.

IN ANY WAY, AS COMMISSIONER JOSEPH WILL SAY. OKAY. So I don't know the answer to that.

Just a leisure sport, I know that you enjoy. I think that is something that we should definitely pose in terms of is this something, how do we generate the interest given our commitment to our youth, given the work that our recreation. Okay, Mr. Parlay, you gotta answer for me. Thank you.

I don't know if I have the answer. Okay. As much as I know about golf simulators, there would have to be some very specific calibration involved with the AI that the simulators use. So I don't know about the portability. My guess is that they're not very portable. But what I can say is that we do have equipment that we utilize in the recreation centers, not simulator, but it's I forget the exact term, but it's like not golf clubs, but they're like plastic and they're kind of getting the concept of golf. And we do that work with our young people in the recreation center. So I can't tell you that.

Thank you. DO WE HAVE A DAY OF ACTION OR A DAY OF INTEREST? HOW DO WE MAKE SURE THAT GIVEN WHERE THE GOLF COURSE IS LOCATED, RIGHT? IT'S IN KETTERING. HOW DO WE MAKE SURE THAT OUR RESIDENTS, OUR YOUTH, ARE ABLE TO ACTIVELY ENGAGE AND FIRST THAT THEY ARE AWARE THAT THIS IS IN FACT AN AMENITY IN THE CITY OF DAYTON. NOT PER SE IN THE CITY OF DAYTON, BUT IT IS A PART OF THE CITY OF DAYTON, I SHOULD SAY, UNDER OUR OWNERSHIP AND CARE. SO HOW DO WE MAKE SURE THAT THAT IS MADE AWARE TO THE PUBLIC AND HOW ARE WE AFFORDING THOSE OPPORTUNITIES TO OUR YOUTH, OUR STUDENTS, AND WORKING IN COLLABORATION WITH OUR RECREATION AND YOUTH SERVICES? I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT PEOPLE KNOW $32,000, IT MAY NOT SEEM LIKE A LARGE CHUNK OF CHANGE, BUT GIVEN THESE TIMES AND THE CONSTRAINTS, EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS, AND WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT IT'S to your point, Commissioner, right, the highest and best use of these dollars that we have in the city?

Well, I can say that the signage on property well reflects the fact that it is City of Dayton owned and operated. Also, in our recreation centers, well, the golf course offers a youth clinic over the summer, which is one of few in the Miami Valley, and we well advertise that within our own recreation centers and highly encourage young people to participate.

OK, thank you. If you can share that information with us, I'll be happy to get that out. I want to make sure that we are exposing our students. And with that, the work, and thank you, Ms. Jackson, for helping initiate this push to make sure there's over 100 or so different recreational activities and camps. We have that information that is rolled out on social media, and we'll continue to share that information. I'm sure that is a part. of the initiative as well.

Yes, ma'am. We actually have a presentation relative to that as a part of the work session following here.

Oh, wonderful. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you very much. Those are all the questions that I have.

Mayor, I would also like to, and Commission, remind you all and our public that the golf operation is funded through user fees. We do not provide taxpayer funding to support that operation. So all of the fees that are charged to whoever uses that golf course goes into a fund and those dollars are what's used to cover the expenses. So the $32,000 that you're referencing is generated from the fees that have been charged and paid by whomever is using the golf course. The other thing to remember is that the simulator is also a fee-based use, and so it will actually pay for itself. And for anyone who uses that simulator, there is a fee to use it, as it is for all of the amenities on that golf course. And so over time, over about a year and a half, it'll more than pay for itself. That being said, we are happy to hold on the expenditure. The authority is granted through the appropriation, but the actual implementation on or execution of the expenditure can be held until we have discussions about whether that's the best use of that funding or if there's something else we can do in addition, as you all have mentioned here. So I just wanted to provide that insight.

THAT IS A GREAT PUT. THANK YOU SO MUCH, MS. LOFTON. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT. SO AGAIN, LET IT BE CLEAR THAT IT IS NOT GENERAL FUNDS THAT WE, DOLLARS THAT WE ARE USING FOR THE $32,000 FOR THE GOLF SIMULATOR. THESE ARE GENERATED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SIMULATOR IN THE GOLF COURSE FEES. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT. AND TO YOUR POINT, WE'RE GOING TO REVISIT THE $50,000 TO SEE IF IN FACT, HOW IN FACT WHAT THAT AGREEMENT WAS AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT INITIALLY IN THE CLOSING OF THE OTHER TWO. THANK YOU, MS. LOFTON.

YOU'RE WELCOME. THAT'S A HUGE DISTINCTION TO MAKE. I DIDN'T THINK ABOUT THAT PART OF IT, BUT TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH, THAT REALLY CHANGES MY PERCEPTION OF A LOT OF THIS STUFF, SO VERY IMPORTANT. THANK YOU FOR BRINGING THAT UP.

THANK YOU, YEP. ALL RIGHT. OKAY, MS. LOFTON, WE READY FOR LEGISLATION.

Mayor, I move that we adopt the city manager's recommendation.

Oh yes, that part too. Thank you.

Second. Second, yeah.

Alright, it has been properly moved and seconded to approve the city manager's recommendations. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no. Any abstentions? Alright, now Ms. McClendon, we are ready for legislation.

SECOND READING ORDINANCE NUMBER 32190-26, AMENDING THE OFFICIAL ZONING MAP TO ESTABLISH PLAN DEVELOPMENT 195 AND TO CHANGE THE UNDERLYING ZONING FROM MATURE SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL MR5 TO MATURE MULTIFAMILY MMF AT 40 SOUTH EDWIN C. MOSES BOULEVARD, 3.74 ACRES. MAYOR TURNER-SLOSS? AYE. COMMISSIONER JOSEPH? AYE. SHAW? AYE. BEARCHILD? AYE. BECKHAM? ORDINANCE NUMBER 32190-26 HAS PASSED WITH FIVE VOTES IN FAVOR. SECOND READING ORDINANCE NUMBER 32189-26, AMENDING THE CITY'S APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE YEAR 2026. MAYOR TURNER-SLOSS. AYE. COMMISSIONERS JOSEPH.

AYE.

SHAW. AYE. BEARCHILD. AYE. BECKHAM.

AYE.

Ordinance number 32189-26 has passed with five votes in favor. SECOND READING RESOLUTION NUMBER 6932-26 AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO ACCEPT FEDERAL FISCAL YEARS 2027 AND 2028 FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION AIRPORT IMPROVEMENT PROJECT GRANTS FROM THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION FOR AIRPORT IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS AT THE JAMES M COX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT and Dayton Wright Brothers Airport. On behalf of the city of Dayton, in an amount of $25 million and zero cents, Mayor Turner-Sloss? Aye. Commissioners Joseph? Aye. Shaw? Aye. Fairchild? Aye. Beckham?

Aye.

Resolution number 6932-26 has been adopted with five votes in favor. And that concludes legislation, Your Honor.

Thank you, Ms. McClendon. I really appreciate it. And are there any citizens who are registered to speak this morning?

YOUR HONOR, THERE ARE 14 CITIZENS REGISTERED TO SPEAK. OKAY. I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND EVERYONE OF THE 3-MINUTE TIME LIMIT. AS YOU ADDRESS THE COMMISSION, WE ASK THAT YOU STATE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS FOR THE RECORD. AT THAT TIME, I WILL TURN ON THE GREEN LIGHT. WHEN THE GREEN LIGHT COMES ON, YOU WILL HAVE 3 MINUTES TO SPEAK. AFTER YOU HAVE SPOKEN 2 1⁄2 MINUTES, A YELLOW LIGHT WILL COME ON, AND YOU WILL HAVE 30 SECONDS REMAINING TO SPEAK. When the red light comes on, you'll be asked to cease your comments and to take your seat. To the audience in attendance, please be mindful this is a business meeting and we kindly request that during this portion of the meeting, you refrain from any hand clapping, finger snapping, and conversation that would prevent the city commission from hearing the speaker's comments. I call to the podium Joseph Abrams, Sarah Horton,

Sarah Horton, 1980 Park Hill Drive. Good morning. Good morning. I attended the May 20th City Commission meeting, and here's three minutes of feedback from a former preschool teacher that no one asked for. Thank you for agreeing to remove the automated license plate reader cameras. I do hope that the next time you guys can hear those concerns before 25 people have to miss their dinner to come talk to you about it. You all approved $200,000 for snow removal. That didn't include the bus line sidewalks, especially along Salem Avenue, or the bike lanes that you guys spent a lot of money putting in a few days after the snowstorm. In January, I was driving to work very early in the morning. It was 5.30 in the morning, so very dark. And I almost ran over a blind man because he was walking down the middle of the road because he could not access the sidewalk and he did not have boots that would allow him to be in the snow. For a compassionate city, that's despicable, that's pretty terrible. We need to be taking better care of our community members. Speaking of bus lines, the RTA lists buses in the app and they don't show up. And when community members call, they say, I guess the driver didn't show up today. Maybe if somebody from the city office called, maybe you guys would have a better response because they are not listening to the people who actually use the buses. Why does it matter if the golf course is self-funded? You just reminded us that this is a business meeting. So is the city of Dayton a business, or is it not? Why does the golf course get a special distinction? Why is that not in the general fund? The solar project that we discussed earlier, Do the citizens living around that area get priority? Because they're the ones who are going to be dealing with all the construction. They're going to be dealing with 300 acres of solar panels. Do they get to benefit from that directly? Commissioner Joseph, in the last meeting, abstained from several large ticket items with his vote. Is that because of financial benefits? Is that... No? Okay. The parking for the new development, it's slated to have 120 apartments and 155 parking spots. I don't know about you guys, but we are a two-car household. And is there a plan for the overflow of those cars? It's not in a great location for anything, so it would be great if there was some education about that. When you're talking about knocking down, demolishing all these buildings. They're all being put up with cheaper inferior builds. Like the DeSoto Bass development, we had brick buildings with slate tile roofs, and now we have not that. And one thing about the slate tile roofs, those are, first of all, very expensive. They could have been reused. Second of all, people can put rain barrels and stuff without and use that water to actually water gardens instead of the... That's it. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Ms. Horton. I call to the podium Mary Sue Geminer.

Mary Sue Geminer, 1418 Arbor Avenue. Good morning. Good morning. I appreciate the presentation today from Dayton United for Human Rights and I'm looking forward to the work session. I went back to the Universal Declaration document to review those rights and was struck by several that I hope will be emphasized this morning. The very first sentence of Article 1 is so powerful. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Article 2 makes sure there are no exceptions, and in addition to listing the categories we normally hear, race, religion, sexual orientation, it also mentions property. Poor people have as much right to be treated with dignity as rich people. A sign mocking panhandlers has no place in a human rights city. Police need to have as much respect for the man on the bike with the missing headlamp as they do for the business owner who doesn't like people who aren't customers standing in front of his store. Article 5, no one shall be subjected to degrading treatment. At the April 8th meeting, we heard about the need for accountability from the very first seconds of an interaction between a police officer and a resident. Quoting from Carlos Buford, provocation leads to escalation, and when authority provokes instead of protecting, the outcome is often tragic. Unfortunately, we have too many incidents of provocation. At the May 6th meeting, we heard from several residents who have been disrespected by police. And while the mayor and commissioners responded to the remarks about the automated license plate readers, nothing was said to acknowledge the pain of those residents. Not only was their original treatment degrading, but that lack of acknowledgement, especially to Kenya Akbar, who gave her firsthand experience, showed a deplorable lack of respect. Finally, I'm wondering who writes the meeting minutes that you approve every week. Do you read them first? Just looking through the minutes of several recent meetings, I've seen that they lack both accuracy and completeness. For example, over the last couple months, you've heard calls for the firing of the city manager. Reading the minutes, you wouldn't know that because the words used for this explicit demand are, quote, desire for change in city leadership, quote. Let me be clear, and I hope that it is made clear in this week's minutes, the demand is for the firing of the city manager. I don't take any pleasure in calling for that, but I am convinced it is the most important step you can take to restore trust with the public. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Gminer. I call to the podium Maggie Burke.

Good morning. Maggie Burke, 1200 Epworth Avenue. Good morning. Good morning. Hello, everyone. I'm very excited to be here today. I am the Vice President and Youth Program Director for Dayton United for Human Rights, and I'm here to uplift the Community Voices Dayton Region Human Rights Report. For two years, community came together and volunteered their own time and energy to share their thoughts, personal testimonies, concerns, feedbacks, and visions to help bring this report to fruition. I want to share a tremendous thank you to everyone that invested their personal time into this report to capture community feedback from hours of research, documentation, writing, editing, phone calls, meetings, meetings. Did I mention meetings? I want to emphasize that this report was put together for community by community. Individuals who live, work, visit, and spend time in Dayton took time to share their concerns. Neighbors shared lived experiences. Crucial conversations leading to action items took place. While the community collaboratives occurred, education series, countless tabling at events, social events, and collaborations with community advocates occurred as well. Dayton United for Human Rights is community centric and we truly believe our voice is our human rights choice. Now that the report is published, it does not mean the work is over. I am here asking all of you to take time and read the information Community is sharing, listen to Community voices with intention, and develop transparent, human rights centered policies, procedures, interactions, budgets, etc. Community has identified the most urgent barriers to dignity, equity, and well-being. Please listen and take action. Let's work together, community and the city, to establish a city ordinance to become a human rights city. I also urge everyone in the city to dedicate funding for and establish a human rights action fund as a permanent line item on the city budget. I want to take time and thank every single community member, volunteer, community leader, advocate, caregiver for advocating for human rights in all capacities. From feeding our neighbors, advocating for privacy rights, championing for our youth, community caregivers, and more. Thank you for your unwavering dedication to our community. Let's come together. let's figure out how we can become a human rights city. Lastly, I wanted to extend an invitation to all of you. We have really good opportunities to uplift and celebrate with community. On May 30th, from 12 to 2 at Gem City Market, we're hosting our second annual community graduation, where we're celebrating all ages, all accolades, graduating kindergarten, college, you survived the work week. also we are doing, which I'm really excited about, it's our first Artivism Showcase in collaboration with Sunlight Village and Dayton United for Human Rights. That's June 13th from 12 to 2. You get to come see the kids and what they've learned about civic engagement. Human rights are, it's amazing. And then lastly, July 11th from 12 to 3 at the main library downtown for International Day of Hope. Thank you.

Thank you. I call to the podium Reverend Kelly Kelly.

Reverend Kelly Kelly, 515 East 3rd Street, 45402. Thank you, Mayor, Council Members, City Management. This is my second time coming to speak to you as an effort to show up for our neighbors. I do not personally live in Dayton. However, I serve a congregation of over 125 folks who have been very proud to locate in Dayton. They see Dayton as a city of human rights. liberal values, place where we can celebrate being gay, being poor, being whatever color we are, and have a government that supports that. Our language is often that way and yet what i'm learning as i'm finding out more about how the city is run by the city manager i'm learning that those are words that are not being met by actions I am here to show support from my congregation, Miami Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. We are supporting Show Up for Racial Justice. Now we're supporting Black Lives Matter and we are calling very clearly not for a change in city leadership. We are calling for a change of city management. At my congregation, I am the staff member who is supposed to put in place what the board does. If I had a track record like this city manager, I would not be speaking with you today representing this congregation. The board would have called for a vote of no confidence. And I would have either been negotiated out or escorted out. I know that hiring is very difficult. My background is in HR and staffing. But years have gone by, and changes need to be made. And they can only be made if the full-time person who is supposed to do it is a different person. And I hope that the council will look at ways of hiring their replacement that are transparent and that involve the community. It is beautiful to see so many people here today. And they're here because they care about Dayton. That's not something to roll our eyes at or to bemoan. They're here because they care and they want your words to matter. Thank you.

Thank you, Reverend Kelly Kelly. I call to the podium James Parton.

Good morning, sir.

Good morning, Mayor and members of the Commission. My name is James Pardon. My address is 2200 Wyoming Street. Thank you for the opportunity to speak, and even at my first meeting ever, I will be returning for these. I'm here this morning because I'm concerned about how seriously accountability and accuracy are being handled When it comes to actions taken by city-related personnel and the impact those actions have had on my life, I want to be direct. I believe there are unresolved issues involving inaccurate information, poor communication between agencies, failures in oversight that have had real consequences for me legally, medically, and professionally from officer misconduct, collusion, and even criminal legal retaliation, and all on video and transcript paperwork. This is not a matter of misunderstanding anymore. At this point, it is about whether the system in place is functioning properly and whether citizens are protected from harm caused by incorrect or incomplete records and statements and lies being told. Over the past several years, I've worked to rebuild my life. I've completed... I'm sorry. I've... I've completed, with all legal requirements, completed treatment expectations. I have nearly six years of sobriety and stability. Those efforts should matter in any fair evaluation of my current standing. However, I continue to face barriers that appear to be based in part on information that I believe is incomplete, misrepresented, or not properly corrected through official channels. That raises serious concerns about due process and accountability. What I'm asking for today is not optional from my perspective. It is necessary for fairness and transparency. I am requesting, first, a formal review of how records, reports, Communications related my interactions with city law enforcement and affiliated personnel were created, documented, and shared. Second, an explanation of what process exists when a citizen identifies potentially inaccurate or misleading official information and why that process has not corrected what I am experiencing. And third, a clear directive from this body on how I'm expected to resolve this through official channels because informal handling and silence is not acceptable when the consequences are this serious. I'd also like decisions and identifications for the above requests in writing. Email or letterhead is fine. I want to be clear. I'm prepared to prefer every lawful avenue available if these concerns are not addressed properly. I would prefer resolution through transparency, accountability from this body. Time is up.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, what?

Your time is up. Finish your last statement. Are you wrapping up? Thank you.

My expectation is simple, accurate records, fair process, meaningful oversight when something is brought forward. This issue is documented. The city has been placed on notice and I expect an independent review. Ignoring misconduct only increases liability in general for the city.

Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. McClendon. I call to the podium James Owen.

Good morning, sir.

Good morning. I'm coming here for, it's a personal thing here, with parking in front of my own home.

Mr. Owen, state your name and your address, please. Oh, I'm sorry.

My name is James Owen, 619 Greenlawn Avenue, Dayton. I'm here about parking in front of my own home. Four years ago, I had a heart transplant. A year and a half prior to that, I had a heart pump put in. I was in the hospital for a solid three months. With that being said, I've got a neighbor that wants to keep calling, getting a green sticker put on a vehicle of mine because it's not moved in 48 hours. It's directly in front of my own home. It's not bothering anybody. I had law enforcement come out, started the truck, moved the truck, all in working order, not flat tires, anything like that. Two days later, she does the exact same thing again. Now... With that being said, with this heart transplant, at any time, I could go into the hospital. They could call me up and say, hey, we don't like blood tests that came back. You're showing a sign of rejection. You have to come to the hospital. Am I going to have to worry about my vehicles being towed off to the street because they haven't been moved in 48 hours because this lady next door? I've lived at that house for over 30 years. Come home from that house, from the hospital, When I was born, been in our family for almost 100 years. And to have to just keep dealing with this lady constantly, and I know we've got better things to do with the money. for the police department than to keep coming out for things like this. And I was told through the police, maybe I should come down and speak to you, that maybe you guys could do something for me, that that is a rule of 48 hours. I did try to get police reports from where I've had mediation out there trying to get a protection order against this lady. Can't give protection orders out unless there's violence. I'm like, that doesn't sound right to me. But I even went down to the sheriff's office. I've been to the Dayton Police Department looking for police reports. No reports of me calling in 911 where she's threatening to come outside with a weapon on a neighbor and myself and another neighbor. About two weeks ago, no reports of a 911 call with a woman coming out with a weapon. I couldn't understand that. But if you guys could help me out anyway, I'd appreciate it. Like I said, with the heart transplant. I don't need to have to worry about vehicles being towed off the street, you know, and having a, who knows, a week, two weeks, a month in the hospital, I would have that storage fee on these vehicles. I can't afford that. I'm on a fixed income. Social Security, I'm on disability. If there's anything that you guys could do for me, I'd appreciate it. Thank you so very much.

Thank you, Mr. Owen. What we will do is we'll follow up with you after the meeting. You can work with our staff, Mr. Davis, Ms. Reed, and we will follow up to make sure that we have your information. Because to your point, there is an opportunity for us to look. FURTHER INTO MEDIATION, BUT WE'LL HAVE A CONVERSATION AFTER THE MEETING TO SEE IF THERE IS, IN FACT, A PATH FORWARD TO WORK WITH OUR MEDIATION CENTER. AND I KNOW YOU SAID THAT THAT IS SOMETHING THAT YOU HAVE WORKED THROUGH CURRENTLY OR PRIOR TO, BUT AGAIN, IT MAY BE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR US TO REVISIT. BUT WE'LL SPEAK WITH YOU AFTER THE MEETING.

OKAY, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH. THANK YOU, MR. OWEN. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU.

EXCUSE ME, MS. MCCLENDON. THANK YOU. I CALL TO THE PODIUM PAUL CARRIGAN,

Good morning. Good morning, sir. 1525 Pershing Boulevard. Boy, I'm getting old. It's a painful walk up here every week. I know that. I feel it. I'm not young anymore. I'm going to go through my list of things because last Wednesday I was so emotional. I was up here for three minutes. I remember a bloody thing I said. I really don't. I was caught up in that mayhem. I was so angry along with the patrons who were sitting in the audience. So I want to say thank you is not the word, but all the people that live in this area are very happy that Linden Avenue has been paved. Oh my God, what a wonderful world that is. We've been complaining about it for decades. Also, the stretch of Smithville from Waterville to Patterson. Also, welcome. Love it. Love it. We all love it. People that know that I was coming here today made sure that that was the first thing I talked about because I missed it two times in a row. I want to thank the... Ms. Mayor, I want to thank you individually for turning me on to the Miami Valley Action Partnership. I am now an active member. And everybody that's listening to this right now, if your home is in disrepair, like we just saw the demolition report, If your house is heading that way, you better get in touch with this organization. They will help you out. I am now active. They've already come and installed something in my house.

That is wonderful.

So I'm excited about that.

Thank you for sharing that.

I also need to thank you for bringing attention. It was by me, but thank you for letting me allow to bring attention to Pershing Hill. I gave you data from the 60 days of the speed indicators in both directions, and if you had any time, you probably didn't, given your circumstances, and that's fine. It was almost as bad. Just as much traffic, just as much speeders, 40% of the traffic speeding in a 25-mile-an-hour residential neighborhood. That's unacceptable. And I'm not laying this in your lap. I've been in touch with the commander of the South Wing, very wonderful, nice Lieutenant Perkins. We're going to get together. We've been conversing for a while. I'm trying to get the engineers. I'm going to use names now. I have avoided that in the past. Mr. Lansky over at Engineers, I haven't got him to agree yet, but the commander is trying to get him to agree to a meeting, the three of us, so we can come up with a solution. Because I have ideas, because it's not going to stay the way it is. And you need to understand, I was an infant who was taken to that address. I've been hearing my grandparents and uncles scream at traffic my whole lifetime on that street. I'm going to leave my legacy. It's going to get fixed with your help. I love the collaborative effort that's come around with all this. I really am. I'm happy. I don't know the result of what happened after last Wednesday's meeting. I've heard some things like they've been turned off, they're going to be covered, so forth and so on. I'd like for you to at least address that so the public can hear what the city has actually done about that.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Kering. I call to the podium Tony Talbott.

Tony Talbot, 123 LaBelle Street. Good morning, Your Honor. Good morning, Commissioners. I just come up to reiterate my support for Dayton becoming a human rights city and the next, the very important step we're taking now in moving forward in that process. I've been doing human rights work locally in Dayton and the Miami Valley for 16 years now. I'm at the University of Dayton's Human Rights Center. I'm part of Dayton United for Human Rights. I am the co-founder and director of Abolition Ohio, the anti-human trafficking coalition for the Miami Valley. So this has been something that has been my passion and really my life's work for this stage of my life. And I am very proud of what we've accomplished so far. I'm very proud of the city government's willingness to engage with this. I just want to... State, a few points I think that are very important. At the Human Rights Center, our guiding principle is what we call the social practice of human rights. For many people, human rights is a legal thing. It happens in courtrooms. We believe human rights are actually socially created with the dynamic interaction of all people. And you can't overstate the importance of involving local government officials, local business owners, local community members, teachers, artists, everyone to collectively create human rights and the conditions to where we can really respect and protect and fulfill human rights. To do this will require major transformations in the city, probably with laws, with ordinances, and with the mindset of city officials and city employees and the community as well. And I really hope that we can be here to offer our support through Dayton United for Human Rights, through the University of Dayton Human Rights Center, and other organizations to help aid in these needed transformations. And please call on us as a resource whenever this need arises. And I want to thank you once again very much.

Thank you for your leadership and your commitment. Thank you. I call to the podium Sharon Screech.

Hello, commissioners. My name is Sharon Screech. I live at 515 West Grand Avenue. Good morning. I didn't come with my normal well-versed letter. I just wanted to come with you directly. I'm here as a part of Racial Justice Now with Zakia Zankara-Jabbar as the director. One thing I wanted to explain is I'm agreeing with Ms. Grameer that the city manager needs to be fired. You know, there's no transparency there. The way these dollars are being appropriated. Last week when I heard the $30,000 for the gym for the police officers, they need to buy a gym membership like everybody else. They are already getting paid with tax dollars. Go get you a membership. Go pay for your own. They make $60,000, $70,000 a year, more than the average resident in the city. They can pay for their own membership. I don't see why we're giving $30,000 for the West Dayton Police Department to have a gym. So somebody was in the background with that. I also want to thank you, Mayor and Mr. Fairchild, for your walks. I don't understand why the other three commissioners are not walking with you. I don't see Mr. Beckham ran on a platform of engagement. I haven't seen him engaging in anything but being up here sitting doing nothing. So I would like to see him at more walks so that we can talk to all the commissioners, just not two people on the panel. And another thing I'm seeing, right down from a historical house for Paul Lawrence Dunbar, just a block down, there's a park called Little Eden Park. It's terrible. There's trash cans, trash couches. The grass is taller than me. I didn't even know that was a city of Dayton Park. It says it on the sign. It's a five rivers metro, I don't understand why that park looks that terrible just a block from a historical monument. It's ridiculous, it's terrible, it's nasty. I was like, what is going on here? And just some of the money like the golf simulator out in Kettering, what black kids are going out to Kettering to play golf? We already had our black golf course shut down. Why? Why is a golf simulator going to be there? No one's going out there. No one. Not even black adults are going to Kettering to play golf at the Kettering golf course, other than Mr. Shaw, since he's so happy to promote that. I don't care what money they're making over there. And like Mr. Shaw said, $32,000 is not that much money. Yeah, it's not that much money if you're getting paid. IF YOU'RE GETTING PAID MORE THAN THAT, THAT'S NOT THAT MUCH MONEY TO YOU. BUT TO SOMEBODY LIKE ME, THAT IS A LOT OF MONEY TO PROVIDE. AND I THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HEARING ME.

THANK YOU, MS. GREECH. I CALL TO THE PODIUM TALLIS GAUGE.

TALLIS 1921, GEDDESBURG.

GOOD MORNING.

Mayor Shanice Ernst-Loss, I appreciate you. Fairchild, my guy, I appreciate you. I appreciate both of y'all, the work y'all put in and meeting with us in the community in different places and just getting involved, man, and hearing the people, man, and putting us first. I appreciate that. I wish she was here because I got some stuff for her. But anyway... Becca, man, I still ain't heard from you. My number's still the same, bro. You need my email address? We're friends on Facebook. I ain't heard from you. You said we was going to have a conversation. We still ain't had that conversation, man. Shaw, what's going on, man? You writing down stuff, but y'all never had nothing to say for real. I'm glad you're awake today, Mr. Joseph, man. I caught you asleep a few times, but I didn't get my phone dialed, so you got lucky this week. Rec centers, rec centers, rec centers, rec centers, rec centers. I'm going to keep on pushing the same thing. Rec centers, man. I know we got stuff going on and it might not be in the budget, man, but if it's enough of these bandos and if we got 33,000 full of golf courts like some of the people already said, then we could put together... a rec center, or we could turn some of these bandos that we're knocking down into a community place that people could use. The youth. To fix the future, y'all, we must work on the future. That's my focus. If I get caught in one of these traps by the system, I'm just like an added bonus to them, but they focus as the young people that can still be influenced. They can still be maneuvered into going left or right. And I want them to get right so they don't get left. And you'll get that by midnight if you ain't get that. And it's not a threat, Shaw. So don't send them after me again. I make promises anyway. But these bandos, if we could get them together. If we need handymen, there's people out here looking for work. There's people out here that can fix these houses. I can hang drywall, siding, roofing, whatever. So if we can work on that. And also, I wanted to say to you, that's great with that program that y'all got going on. Man, that's awesome. I want to add to that. If we could get some boots on the ground. I'm not dissing the street soldiers because I love them guys. But I don't ever see them nowhere, honestly. Nowhere where I'd be at or where I feel like they could be used. you know what i'm saying i don't see nobody in front of these corner stores talking to these young people it's like a gap between the elderly people and the young people and then you got some of us who still look like the young folks who kind of talk like the young folks who just may even act like some of these young folks who can meet and mix and mingle and bridge that gap between the elders and the youngsters man and can talk to these young people because i say what they i could talk like them i don't wear no suit i'll never wear a tie um so it fits like if i could get in with y'all's programmer life we had some people that's on the ground to do thank you thank you oh yeah and fire shelly dickstein thank you mr gage i call to the podium lisa singh

I'm Lisa Singh, 2150 Settlers Trail, Vandalia. Good morning. Hello, everybody. Well, thank you for having me. I'm kind of like barely above the podium, so I don't know if you can see me. Hi. So I know I'm not from Dayton. But Dayton is a city that I love and it has my heart in every way. I worked at the Mediation Center, Dayton Mediation Center. I volunteered for years. I'm all about community engagement and what the community is all about. I have for years championed so many of Dayton's projects and especially when we had something to talk about and we had the community together. And now I stand here because I'm part of Dayton United for Human Rights. Four years ago, I was invited by Miss Mary Tyler to engage in this and it was after I came back from the high-level political forum at the United Nations. And in that forum, I heard all of the diplomats, all of these people from all over the world say, we can't do this unless communities start it. And so I was pleased that Ms. Tyler was starting this initiative. And then I was pleased when the city of Dayton took it one step further, one of the first cities to do that. Dayton, to me, is like a light and a beacon to all the communities around it. And Dayton is a leader. Like Tony Talbot said also, that human rights is the community. The community is what's going to make it happen. And with the city in partnership and working with the community, I see great things. I've already seen Dayton's United for Human Rights affect more than 150 people, and I've seen the community engagement that's already happening. In fact, I do want to invite you to, like every month, we lead a conversation about one human right, and we do a dialogue. So I think I see a light, so I guess that means my time is up. I probably cannot say enough, but please, please take this even forward because I believe in you.

Thank you, Ms. Zane. I call to the podium Sharon Hawkins.

Sharon Hawkins, 745 Ellsworth. Good morning. Good morning, Mayor. Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you very much for taking the time to listen to what we have to say at Dayton United for Human Rights. I come to you as a board member of Dayton United for Human Rights and as an employee contractor for the Fitz Center for Leadership and Community at the University of Dayton, working with the Doula Initiative Project here in Dayton. I commend your courage in having an assessment done of recreation and parks and I ask you to continue your courage and your transparency and accountability of which you are becoming known and having the commission report that you're going to receive made public for the public consumption and understanding of what is happening. That's all I have to say. Thank you for taking the time. Thank you, Ms. Hawkins.

I call to the podium Melissa Bertolo.

Good morning. Melissa Bertolo, 1137 Harvard Boulevard. So I'd like to honor the work of Dayton United for Human Rights. And I reflected and looked back at some of the articles. And I'd like to draw your attention to Article 12. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family home, or correspondence. And 13, everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within borders of each state. And so I've been coming here for many years to talk to you about automatic license plate readers, or really AI mass surveillance technology. And so I want to remind you of how these work. So these systems work by taking a picture every single time a car passes one of the cameras, whether that driver has done anything wrong or not. That picture captures not just the license plate, but the vehicle itself, including details like the make, model, color, bumper stickers, damage, or other identifying features. along with the exact time and location where the photo was taken. That information is stored in a database, and when enough pictures are collected, over time, law enforcement can look back and piece together where a vehicle has been, when it was there, the routes it regularly travels, creating a detailed picture of someone's movements. Again, whether or not anything was done wrong. I ask you, does this uphold articles 12 and 13? Less than one month ago, the Dayton Police Department revealed that they had shared this mass surveillance data over 7,000 times for immigration enforcement purposes. This is a devastatingly large number and shows just how powerful this tool is. Yet I also want to remind you that this is just one population that we are aware of that has been impacted. But mass surveillance technology puts all of us at risk. no matter our place of birth, political ideology, religion, or any other factor. This technology can and will be used against us. We should not have to wonder whether our daily movements are being watched simply because we drove to work, attended a community meeting, visited a doctor, or participated in civic life. News reports of misuse of automatic license plate readers for purposes of stalking, accessing reproductive care, and attending political protests are rampant. And until the audit logs have been shared, we will not begin to understand the extent of the impact of the use of this technology on other communities. Article 3 of the Declaration of Human Rights also talks about the right to life, liberty, and security. Real public safety is not created by watching more people more often. It's created through housing, mental health care, youth opportunities, neighborhood investment, and relationships built on trust. Trust is not built through silence. Trust is built through transparency, accountability, and the courage to listen when your community is telling you something is wrong. We've had people coming from... Time is up. Thank you.

That concludes the speakers, Your Honor.

Thank you, Ms. McClendon. Ms. Lofton, do you have any closing comments this morning? I have none, Your Honor. Thank you. Ms. McClendon, do you have any closing comments?

Yes, Your Honor. There is a work session immediately following this morning's commission meeting from the HRC regarding the human rights assessment.

Thank you, Ms. McClendon. Commissioners, do you have any closing comments? Commissioner Beckham.

Thank you, Your Honor. Just a few. I want to thank all of the citizens and residents that came out to speak today. Additionally, for the presentations that we heard, thank you again for those updates. Lastly, I just want to congratulate Dayton Children's. They recently opened their new Center for Healthy Futures in West Dayton. I had the pleasure of attending that grand opening and tour. I think it'll be a very impactful as well as much needed service for that part of our community and They actually named the building after Children's Hospital's retiring CEO, Debbie Feldman. So I want to congratulate her. I want to congratulate Children's and thank them for their investment in that part of our city. Those are all my comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Fairchild.

Yeah, thank you. First, I want to thank everyone for your understanding last week. I had the opportunity to give the commencement speech for my high school, and so I was able to be with those students to celebrate them and also to tell them how proud we are of them, particularly for their accomplishment going through the real lives that they live. So thank you for that understanding. Also, another thank you around... Dayton Children's Hospital and the opening of the Center for Healthy Futures. I should mention that it opens today. They are seeing their first patients today. The hours are noon to 8. And it's literally across the street from DeSoto Bass. And so if we are looking around access to health care, I'm very proud that Dayton Children's has invested in that location and bringing health care to the children in that neighborhood and all of West Dayton. So thank you to them. Thank you for the citizens who have come and your comments. Reverend Kelly Kelly, I appreciate you recognizing that people come because they care. And I hope everyone who comes knows that I value your input. I think you demonstrate the commitment in what really makes democracy work. And I think in every comment, there's a seed of something that can help us be a better community. So thank you for being here. And Tony Talbot, I want to thank you for your comments, your description of how human rights as a social construct that we create together really dovetails with our summer of peace and the peace campaign and the mayor's vision for reimagining public safety. Because it really is about what we as a community are going to create together and how we're going to be responsible to one another Policing is one component of that, but it's really the values that we embrace together and put into action that's going to bring that forward. So thank you for that comment as well. I wasn't here at the meeting when we had the moment of silence for Russell Reese, Bishop Cox, Reverend Mann, and Mark DeWitt. I'm particularly mindful of Mark DeWitt, who was a close friend of mine, and today at 4 o'clock there is an observance of his life at Sinclair. People are still mourning Mark. I encourage you to consider attending that. I'm also mindful that this past weekend was Memorial Day, and I've been grateful for citizens and organizations around the community who created space for us to observe the sacrifice that service members have made, that full measure of devotion. And, you know, the past couple of weeks we had the memorial service for fallen officers at Riverscape, and then the following week we had the dedication of the memorial of the new memorial for fallen officers there on Riverview. And there were a couple of community leaders who we didn't recognize who have passed. And I'm thinking of Katie Myers, who was the executive director of Downtown Dayton Partnership, and Ann Higdon, who had run ISIS and was an incredible leader and helped young people in incredible ways. So if you would, can we have a moment of silence in honor of all of those? Thank you. Thank you. Before I get to, I have a substantial comment I want to make. Before I get there, I want to talk about some of the upcoming events. Saturday is a day full of opportunities, but also on Thursday night, Thursday night, Mayor Turner-Sloss is hosting a town hall, Burkhart Library from 5 to 7.30, On Saturday, there will be a town hall dedicated to public safety. Chief Henderson's going to be there, as well as others. That's from 10 to noon. Right now, the location is to be determined. We're anticipating a larger crowd and looking for a bigger site. And so we'll be communicating that sometime today as we get that location determined. There's a downtown housing tour that takes place Saturday from 10 to 2, and it's a self-guided event with a variety of house styles and locations, highlighting the walkability and continued growth happening throughout downtown. There's an event map and guide available online at downtowndayton.org. There's an event for maternal health. That's going to be hosted at Greater Allen AME Church, and that's at 11 a.m., and that's around keeping your baby safe is the title of that workshop. Thank you for, I can't remember who reminded us of the community graduation at Gem City Market. I think that was you, Ms. Burke. That's from noon to 2. I was able to attend that last year. It's a great opportunity to come and tell young people we're proud of them for their accomplishments. And then finally, you can celebrate the funk festival on Saturday night down at the Levitt Center. And then in the upcoming week on June 2nd, as part of the mini resource fair series at the main downtown metro library, they'll be hosting an LGBTQ plus resource fair. That's Tuesday, June 2nd from noon to 2. And that will be in the atrium, providing an opportunity for community members to connect access resources and build a stronger future. My final comment is over the last few weeks, people have come and wanted to discuss accountability. And that was something, particularly last year on the campaign trail, I talked quite a bit about. And so I'm very mindful about accountability and what makes us accountable. And the things that I've identified are transparency, responsiveness, and being responsible. And let's be clear, we have not done that. This commission has not required accountability from our administration. We simply have not done it. In little ways and in big ways. I think about Mr. Kerrigan who's come here and asked for a change in how we do the petition process and we have not completed that. I think about a Belmont resident who had their lawyer over a year ago send us a letter talking about how code enforcement interacted with them and serious allegations of really inappropriate interactions and customer service and we have not provided a response to that citizen yet. I'm mindful of my friend Mark DeWitt. I met him on the Citizen Police Council. When police reform came, we similarly dismissed it, that CPC. And after police reform, we have less citizen oversight than what we had prior to police reform. Besides CPC being set down, we located our independent auditor within the city manager rather than the HRC where the group had initially suggested. Our use of force committee was doing legitimate work, bringing serious proposal for us to consider, but then that summarily got dismissed and recreated in such a way that it's hardly have any usefulness at all. And that's part of the reason we are here. We haven't got a report on Brian Moody. We have social media footage of interactions with police, use of force, and not having a body to look at that closely. The original use of force would have been able to call a meeting at the discretion of the chair. When we redid the use of force, it simply meets biannually, two meetings a year. at the adoption of the ALPR. At that time, we had citizens who had worked with police and administration to create an ordinance that gave us how we would adopt new technology, and we didn't file that ordinance. And it was supposed to have a sober analysis of the technology. We did not get that. And when I questioned the city manager on whether we were making a data-driven decision, because that's what we claim to be, she didn't answer that question and the previous mayor gaveled me out. I'm mindful of Ms. Hastings' comment a few weeks ago. She said, trust is lost in buckets and regained in drops. We have lost a lot of trust. And we've got a lot of work to refill by drops the trust that we need to govern. Now one of the key principles of law enforcement is that Law enforcement is really an extension of the community. And this goes back to Mr. Tauber's point. It's like what we create together. But we have allowed to fester this them-us mentality between community and police that makes everyone unsafe and doesn't really promote public safety. I'm mindful when we had the selection of the police chief, this commission as a whole had given the city manager direction and then that got reversed. And in my comments then, I was mindful that when we don't do what we say, We don't require the city manager to do and be accountable. When we don't follow best practices, we send a message throughout the whole culture of this organization. And what I said that night was I was curious how that decision, but looking back over this timeline, all of these little decisions, when we don't do what we say we do, that's really accountability. When we don't do that, it sends a message to the whole organization. that we don't have to do what we say we don't have to be accountable and that goes from city manager to front line to directors mill managers officers on the street in this commission and that's a failure on our part and we need to do better thank you commissioner commissioner shaw thank you for that commissioner

I do want to thank Children's Hospital also. I attended their ribbon cutting for the new facility there on Germantown Street. I had a chance to talk to a lot of our stakeholders and partners at that event. It's remarkable. About $160 million worth of investment in that corridor. in really a very short period of time. Public, but mostly private investment in that corridor, and I think people ought to know about that. These are significant gains in economic development in West Dayton, in a very distressed part of our city, and I am just proud of the work that community has done in making that happen. So we should keep it up. Debbie Feldman and her husband, Bruce Feldman, that investment in just that small couple block area is really quite remarkable, and it adds to the opportunity for development in that corridor. In other places, Boys and Girls Club, GDPM, and others are doing some remarkable work. Food Bank, Central State West, just an awful lot of development. Homeful. A lot of good development in that corridor, and we need to be intentional about doing that in other parts of our city, but especially West Dayton, as we know that that has been historically disinvested in. But that is changing, and that should be said publicly. I want you to join Five Rivers Metro Parks at Riverscape for Passport to Metro Parks on Friday, May 29th from 6 to 9. Enjoy an interactive evening where residents can meet park rangers and live animal ambassadors, explore upcoming programs and activities, and learn more about the recreational and educational opportunities available. For more information, you can call 937-274-0126. And I look forward to engaging more and appreciate the citizens for coming down here to talk today.

Thank you, Commissioner Shaw. Commissioner Joseph.

Thank you, Mayor. Three points today. The first is one of the speakers made a very good point. I should have explained last week why I was abstaining from the vote. We're required to abstain when we have any legislation having to do with our employers. So as Commissioner does once in a while, the two things I think I abstained on last week are because I work for S&C and they had something to do with it. So I don't want any part of it. Second, one of the speakers asked about the current status of the flock fixed cameras. We as a commission instructed the administration that they need to be taken down, and we asked for a date when that would happen. We're going to find out here soon. In the meantime, we asked that they be covered with a material that's thick enough to prevent any recording. So that's the current status. That's happening right now, I understand. Third, registration is open for the 2026 Dayton World Soccer Games on September 12th. It's going to be at Kettering Field Sports Complex this year. It's a new home for us, and we're hoping that we get a surge of activity because of the World Cup. Our Dayton City Rec Department and Welcome Dayton are working together on this. They're calling it the Play for Peace event. And teams are supposed to represent cultures and countries from around the world. And you can register if you have a youth team or an adult team at daytonrec.com or come to City Hall and go to the rec office just downstairs from us here. We'd love to have a ton of teams out there playing soccer. That's all. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Commissioner. I will be as brief as possible. I want to, again, acknowledge all of the residents for coming this morning to air your grievances, your comments that were made, as well as holding us, this body, accountable. Thank you, Ms. Tara, Ms. Campbell, for all of your work in Again, I'm too learning that, DUHR, I always call it DUHR. But nonetheless, thank you for your leadership into the entire coalition. Thank you all for your tireless work that you all have committed to in standing up this initiative. I look forward to the work session after the meeting this morning. I understand that there are a number of folks that are involved in this piece. Mr. Talbert, thank you very much for uplifting that work and recognizing the articles and the principles and really relating that to how we govern and how, in fact, we are charged with upholding the number of articles that are laid out, even to Ms. Bertella, her points in relating that to what we're dealing with right now and the concerns around the ALPRs. And thank you to all of my colleagues. There have been a number of discussions. We have been, I think Ms. Jackson have been inundated with requests and emails and various different direction that we've all been able to coordinate and COLLECTIVELY WORK TOGETHER ON. SO KNOW THAT YOUR CONCERNS ARE NOT FALLING ON DEAF EARS. WE'RE ACTIVELY WORKING, WE'RE ACTIVELY MOVING, EVEN TO THE POINT, I THINK ABOUT 5 OR 6 O'CLOCK THIS MORNING, WE WERE CONSTANTLY WORKING THROUGH VARIOUS DIFFERENT LANGUAGES, PROPOSALS AND CHANGES AND REVISIONS. So we're doing the work. I do want to acknowledge the point of Ms. Gminer. Thank you, Ms. Mary Sue, in raising your concerns. And you're absolutely right. And this just really hones in on Commissioner Fairchild and his point on that level of transparency and accountability. That is something that I hold true to. And during my time as serving as the mayor in the city of Dayton, and even prior to that as a commission member, and even as an employee, right? And even... a person, right? Just being a productive member of society and being held accountable and really, truly being responsible for your actions and understanding that this role comes with a lot of great responsibility and trust. And I really do appreciate the comment that was made and something that we really need to uplift and that is TRUST IS LOST IN BUCKETS, BUT REGRAINED IN DROPS. THAT SPEAKS VALUE TO WHERE WE ARE, AND SO I INVITE MY COLLEAGUES TO THE CHARGE THAT COMMISSIONER FAIRCHAT HAS MADE. WE HAVE TO ANSWER THE CALL. AGAIN, MS. MARY SUE ADDRESSED THE CONCERNS AROUND the issues that we're hearing from the public around our community police relations, right? How do we build that trust? How do we really start to reimagine public safety? It is not all on PD, as mentioned the week before by my comments. And this is something that is incumbent upon all of us to work collectively together and how we truly redefine REIMAGINING PUBLIC SAFETY. I SEE MY ORANGE MEN IN THE AUDIENCE, THE WORK THAT THEY'RE DOING WITH CVG, THE CURE VIOLENCE GLOBAL INITIATIVE, AND I KNOW THAT ALL OF US ARE A PART OF THAT AND THE VARIOUS DIFFERENT SPACES THAT WE HOLD AND WHETHER OUR COMMITMENTS AND PRIORITIES IN WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY AND and immigration and really uplifting that work around public safety and making sure that there is, in fact, a mutual respect between the community and PD itself. So I'm looking forward to the town hall discussion. We have a great panel that will be part of the conversation as well as an opportunity to hear from the public, to hear from the residents. Chief Henderson, he will be there. And I want to thank the city manager's office for working with us to make sure that Chief Henderson is available to really lay out his priorities and what his concerns and how he see fit in addressing the number of issues and concerns that have been raised by the public as well as the administration and this body as a whole. So again, that town hall is Saturday. That is the 30th from 10 a.m. until noon. And then after you leave the town hall, you can go on over to Gem City Market for the community graduation from 12 to 2 p.m. And so I just want to make sure that I also highlight a couple of comments that were made from the public. But let me also mention this as well. We are having a town hall tomorrow. That is Thursday at Burkhart Branch Library from 5 to 7 p.m. Thank you, Commissioner, for uplifting that town hall. And everyone is invited. We want to hear their concerns. We want to... Again, make sure that we are addressing any concerns or grievances that the public may have, our residents may have. And then I also believe we have a mayor's walk that is coming up. And thank you, Commissioner Shaw, for joining us for the Forest Ridge. We just missed the rain, but nonetheless, it was a good turnout. So I wanted to uplift the staff. FOR ALL OF THE WORK THAT THEY'RE DOING AND FOR COMING OUT. MS. HORTON, THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMENTS THIS MORNING. I REALLY APPRECIATE IT. I BELIEVE SOME OF YOUR COMMENTS MAY HAVE BEEN ADDRESSED ALREADY, BUT IN TERMS OF THE SNOW REMOVAL AND THE BUS LINE, THAT IS A HUGE CONCERNING ISSUE. I KNOW THAT COMMISSIONER FAIRCHILD HAS RAISED THAT CONCERN And there's work that is being done, and this is an opportunity while we're out of season to really revisit how we are addressing the access and those who are, in fact, who are, whether they're biking or walking, that they have the support they need or access, rather, to be able to maneuver throughout the city and the sidewalks itself. especially with highlighting the investment that we made with ARPA dollars, right, curb and sidewalks. There was a huge investment that was made there. Again, Ms. Mary Sue, thank you for your comments. Maggie, thank you for your leadership and your comments. Reverend Kelly Kelly, thank you for your leadership and your comments, and thank you for raising your points around transparency and holding true to the values of this organization, this organization and the city being an immigrant, a friendly city, not just to immigrants, but to all people, right? To all people. And so continuously I've looked at where Mr. Parton, we will work with you offline. I received a number of your emails and I responded to your emails, and we also had an offline conversation. And so I will ask Mr. Davis if you will work with Mr. Parton offline to make sure he has the support that he needs, as well as with Mr. Hall with HRC. I know that he's very familiar with the process, but to Commissioner's point, we don't want to make sure that those comments are getting lost and bottlenecked, that they are being heard, they are being seen, and that we are finding ways and means to address and mitigate those concerns. Mr. Kerrigan, thank you for your advocacy and your leadership. And thank you for charging us. We do need to revisit the petition process. So, Mr. Davis, if we can look at the petition process and we'll work with Ms. Jackson on that as well. Mr. Talbert, thank you for your leadership, your continued pushing forward this initiative and your comments that were made. Ms. Screech, I appreciate your comments. Thank you for being here. And just to note, if I have this correct, Ms. Lofton, correct me if I'm wrong, but Little Eden is not under the purview or the ownership of the City of Dayton. From my understanding, that is privately owned. And I know that to be for certain, but you can correct me if I'm wrong. It's some activity that we've had in the past with some encampments and some work that was being done. But please, by all means.

If you are certain, then I will be as well. If there's anything contrary to that, I will let you all know, but it's not a park that I'm familiar with that we have in our inventory, but we have been a part of assisting with some of the cleanups that have occurred there.

Thank you. And Ms. Lofton, if we could, if we can revisit that. Thank you, Ms. Lofton, to see if we can get the support of our Public Works Department. And that's right, Ms. Jackson. It is not under our ownership and our care. Thank you, Ms. Jackson. I know you know the history on that. And Mr. Gage, thank you for your comments. Ms. Singh, thank you for your comments and for being here. Ms. Hawkins, thank you for your comments. Ms. Bartella, appreciate your leadership and your comments as well. And you're exactly right. And so again, I say all that to say with regards of where we are on and all of this is all encompassing in terms of human rights and being noted and whether it's LPRs Our police community relation, it is all encompassing of what we're doing and how we're going to be viewed in the state, or for that matter in the country, in this world, as being a city that is noble and that holds true to its promises and being transparent and accountable. So my charge is that how do we work together to restore that trust, right? We know that it's going to take those drops. But what are the next steps? And it's an opportunity for us to have a conversation collectively together to find those ways and means for us to build the trust and to make sure that the residents, our business leaders, community stakeholders, that they not only know it, but they feel it and they see it. And I do believe that this is an opportunity for us to do so. And so I just really want to thank my colleagues FOR BEING RECEPTIVE, FOR BEING RECEPTIVE TO THE IDEA, AND FOR THE WILLINGNESS TO HAVE THE LISTENING AIR. AND SO WE'RE WORKING TO ADDRESS THE LPR'S, THERE'S MORE WORK THAT WE NEED TO DO IN TERMS OF ACCOUNTABILITY WITH THE ADMINISTRATION, TRANSPARENCY, AND HOW DO WE REALLY START MOVING THE NEEDLE AND ADDRESSING OUR COMMUNITY POLICING RELATIONS. SO THE FIRST We're going to have two series. The first series is in regards to our youth and gun violence. We're then going to have a conversation as it relates to, again, unpacking community and police relations. So we invite comments, concerns, recommendations, whatever you all may have. But understand... that we want to have a respectable conversation. This is not an opportunity to point fingers, cast blame. We understand that there is a lot of emotion, there is a lot of frustration, but this is an opportunity for people to be heard, to be seen in a safe place for our PD, for our administration, for our residents, our stakeholders, whomever. This is all encompassing of all of us, so I'm asking that we remain to be respectful in airing our grievances and our concerns. And so, with that, with no further business to come before the commission, this meeting is now adjourned.